Federal Hill Townhome

Urban Oasis

How do you adapt a bachelor’s urban row home to the new reality of raising a family? In this case, we built an addition that created an rural oasis in the city. As the building turns the corner, it transitions from traditional to contemporary. The material changes to give lightness to the new structure as it becomes part of the garden. The set-piece of the new addition with its gable roof faces the yard and a minor side street so as not to compete with the historic façade facing the major street.

A new hallway addition mediates between the Federal-style architecture of the existing house and the new vocabulary of the addition. This hallway also allows full use of the rooms in the historic row home since they no longer have to serve double-duty as the main hallway through the house.